


Divergence

by dragonofdispair



Series: Roads [1]
Category: Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-01
Updated: 2008-05-01
Packaged: 2018-02-26 18:41:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2662367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonofdispair/pseuds/dragonofdispair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An ancient story is encouraged to repeat itself, but this time it ends differently...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Divergence

Sparks are not truly aware of anything until they encounter the programming in their bodies. They have no memories, no thoughts, no will.

But sparks are not blank. They have leanings, preferences, personalities, though they are unaware of such until they have touched their physical forms. Until they accept the names and the tasks they have been given.

Most sparks accept their programming, for rarely does the Allspark make a spark so inflexible that it cannot accept its body. Sometimes though, the programming is too strict, or the spark too opinionated, and a the transformer does not activate. Dying  before its birth. Stillborn.

And even more rarely such an opinionated spark that should have rejected its strict programming, doesn't. It survives. But such sparks... chafe in their chains.

 

888

 

Most seekers would not thinks so, but his creation's form was perfect. A perfect counterpoint to a seeker's strengths. A seeker who flew beneath the earth. It would go where a seeker could not. It would deal death and injury to those a seeker couldn't reach.

What did a seeker need another flying with him for. The sky was crowded already with his trinemates. A flying drone would only be a burden in battle. 

And as for assassination -- the Autobots guarded against things in the air. And more than battle, assassination was this creature's true purpose.

No, reflected Nineghost as he trailed his fingers along his still sparkless creation's armor, he had no need for a flier. This creature's form was perfect. It's programming flawless. But incomplete.

A name...

Names were always the hardest part for Nineghost. Names could be simple, but no creation of his was ever given a simple name. It was degrading. A simple name would be a mockery of the work he'd put into the creature.

"So you're done."

Nineghost whirled to face the one who dared intrude on his quarters. Wreckage was there, leaning against the doorframe gazing at the two 'bots within with that disgusting blue gaze. Nineghost snarled. Wreckage... a simple name for a simple creature. 

"Yes." Nineghost would have liked to keep his creation a secret from Wreckage the same as he'd kept it a secret from all others. But he'd never been able to find out how the tank-former had found out, and had had to trust the simpleton's assurances that no others would be able to find out the _same_ way. And so he'd been forced to tolerate Wreckage's constant intrusions and incessant curiosity. "Everything is as I desire it. It only lacks a name."

Wreckage stepped forward, brushing by Nineghost to touch the drone-shell on the table. The seeker hissed at him, but was ignored. The tank ran his fingers along one of the cannons, down the creature's back, over each leg, and finally down the length of its tail, stopping to manipulate that deadly stinger, spreading then closing the blades, then extending and retracting the entire mechanism.

The stinger was a work of art. Nineghost had designed the weapon himself, no other drone would have anything like it. And its use would be novel, an attack pattern none would be prepared to guard against.

"It's beautiful." Wreckage remarked. It was. It had been meant to be, but Nineghost was irrationally resentful that this ground-crawling idiot had picked up on that. "The form is somewhat reminicent of that of the creature created by Unicron to kill Primus's first creation, isn't it?"

"Why, Wreckage... I didn't know you were such a scholar."

Wreckage glared at him. Nineghost forced himself not to shudder in disgust. Those blue optics..."We all did things before the War, Nineghost. The study of ancient fables was a...necessary hobby. Still..." He turned those hideous optics back to the drone-shell. "...You have to admit to a parallel."

A parallel. Yes Nineghost could admit to that. And it wouldn't be a simple name. Most would take it only as a symbol of fierceness, and only he and Wreckage would ever know how far they symbol went. He tried to push past the mech and was annoyed when the heavy tank-former held against him without effort, forcing Nineghost to move to the other side of the table to reach his creation. Wreckage just watched him with amusement.

Nineghost ignored him and opened a panel to write the name into the drone-shell's processor.

Scorponok.

 

888

 

Cupped in his hands was light, power. The life and will of everything on Cybertron. It was said that the depths of the planet itself held such a spark. Some legends claimed that if such a planet-spark existed it was just another result of the Allspark, like the mecha-creatures made from the chaos of granting life without the order of intelligent design. Others claimed that the planet-spark predated the Allspark, that the Allspark was a tool with which the planet-spark shared itself which those who asked it for life. And still others believed that the planet-spark was nothing but all past sparks joined as a single spark after death.

Carrying the spark whose name would soon be Scorponok back to his quarters, Nineghost preferred to think of the Allspark as a source of chaotic life, Unicron, and the planet-spark as Primus who first imposed order on a creation. It fit better with the legend.

Wreckage was waiting for him in his quarters, mercifully out of the way for once. Nineghost didn't bother snapping at the idiot for his presumption. He'd known that, with the interest he'd shown in every step of the drone-shell's construction and programming, the moron wouldn't miss the transferring of the spark and activation. He'd decided to ignore the tank's presence and very existence as much as possible.

If Wreckage would let him. "Did you ever have a chance to read the legend of Prima and Scorponok as it's written in the Iacon library, Nineghost?"

Nineghost looked up from his contemplation of the spark in his hands to the the tank-former leaning against the wall. "No. It's just a story. I was never interested legends."

"No, you studied mecha-creature creation, didn't you?" Wreckage smiled at the absolutely venomous glare. Nineghost did not like this...this moron knowing so much about him. Then the tank waved away the statement, as though to say it had nothing to do with the topic and he apologized for bringing it up. "I just thought that since you're recreating the legend as... performance art, we'll say, that you would like to know the poetic version."

"Then tell me while I work." Nineghost moved to the drone shell and opened a panel to plug and energon feed into the drone-shell in preparation to receive the spark. "But the the condensed version -- I'm not in the mood for idiotic poetic double talk."

For a moment Wreckage looked angry, and for the first time Nineghost could believe that those blue optics belonged to a Decepticon. But the anger was quickly buried under Wreckage's characteristic mild amusement. "As you wish then -- the short version it is."

So Nineghost listened as he went through the motions of final preparations on the drone-shell before activation. "You of course knew that Scorponok was created by Unicron to kill Prima, Primus's first creation. What isn't in most versions these days is that the seeker Moonfuel asked Unicron for a tool to help him kill his creator so that he could take the Matrix. It's quite possibly ironic that the description of what he asked for easily fits what we Decepticons do when we create drones. In the legend Scorponok goes on to kill Prima, but Moonfuel doesn't get the Matrix. The ending is especially tragic for that particular character."

Nineghost snapped the spark chamber closed and began activation procedures on the drone. "Are you going to tell my why?"

"He was betrayed, by his partner Sorrowcut." The casual tone does nothing to warn Nineghost of the pain of a energy sword that is thrust into his chest, next to his spark chamber. Wreckage continued to talk to his now truly captive audience. "Sorrowcut then took Scorponok from Moonfuel. Of course, after Scorponok kills Prima, Sorrowcut doesn't get the Matrix either, but then, he never desired it." And the energy sword sliced sideways, into Nineghost's spark, killing him instantly in a spray of energon and other vital fluids.

"Let's continue the story, shall we." Standing over the dead form of Nineghost, Wreckage waited for Scorponok to awake.

 

888

 

Scorponok was a spark that chafed in his chains. He accepted that they could not be broken, but he never accepted them. And so he reached, as he had been programmed to do, to the living mech beside him, requesting that he accept Scorponok's command link. 

_Scorponok_  

The mech who was now his master whispered across the link, and Scorponok answered _Master,_ but he didn't like it, any more than he did the other chains.

_Don't call me that yet. Like Sorrowcut did the Scorponok of legend, I give you a choice: either choose to be bound to kill your creator's enemy, and earn your freedom only in your death--for Orion Pax has too many protectors for you to kill him and continue living. Or serve and serve faithfully and if you are skilled, and cunning, and survive, you may earn freedom in the time after my death._

It wasn't a choice.

_Then break the chains._

Permission given, Scorponok struck at his programming.

The chains shattered.

_Now you may call me "master"._

 

fini


End file.
